Saturday, October 02, 2004

Fox, Lies, and Website Gaffes

If you haven't been over to Talking Points Memo in the last few days, it's worth a visit. Josh Marshall has been following a little dustup that has some significant ramifications for Faux News ("We Distort, You Comply") and the Kerry Campaign.

In a nutshell, Carl Cameron (Faux's chief political weasel, who is currently following the Kerry campaign) filed a completely bogus report on John Kerry, and it was posted on the Faux website yesterday. Totally fabricated. Faux was called on it by Marshall, admitted the mistake, and removed the report. It was brushed off as the crap it was, and Cameron was supposedly "reprimanded".

Today, I'm flipping past Faux, and there's Cameron in a live shot at a Kerry rally in Florida, smiling his smarmy smile and spouting the usual drivel that falls from his lips. (For those of you who had the opportunity to see "Outfoxed", you'll recognize the little prick - he's the guy seen in pre-interview footage schmoozing with G.W. McJesus, the two of them chewing the fat like a couple of college chums in a bar.)

Given the egregious nature of Cameron's (and Faux's) fabrication, Mary Beth Cahill, John Kerry's campaign manager, should be contacting Faux and demanding Cameron's immediate removal from the reporter pool that follows the Kerry campaign. There is no longer even any pretense of impartiality on the part of Cameron or Faux (like there ever was anyway). This isn't a situation where the Kerry campaign can let things slide -- they must put Faux and other news outlets on notice that this kind of behavior by anyone covering the campaign will not be tolerated.

It's one thing to air criticisms of the candidate. It's quite another to make shit up out of whole cloth and pass it off with a wink and a nod as "real news".

If Cameron is still following the Kerry campaign late this afternoon, it's as much the fault of the Kerry campaign as it is of Faux.